Not even halfway through the year and we have already had the heavy hitters from Marvel and DC, both featuring a much anticipated stand-off between our favourite heroes. One of them lived up to the expectation and delivered an amazing fight… the other was Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Don’t get me wrong, Batman v Superman had its moments but the cracks quickly started to show. The recent Marvel addition added another success to their universe, but left DC’s universe on shaky ground. But what went wrong for Batman v Superman? And what did Captain America: Civil War do right? This is your spoiler warning…
6. The Story
Looking back on both titles, they both follow a fairly similar story but approach the end result with various changes and levels of success. Civil War uses and references the past events of not just Avengers Assemble, but the previous Captain America standalone films to highlight the impact their fights have had on the environment, the casualties, and the relative unease of the governments of those affected. From here, we see the morals and guilt of each character’s actions brought to light, as friendships are strained.
Batman v Superman however uses just one instance to create friction between the titular characters; remember the destruction brought upon Metropolis in Man of Steel? Make sure you pay attention to that as it’s brought up many times throughout, but only by the government officials. The general populace and even Superman himself seems to have forgotten the casualties and damages. He never comes across as guilty, yet is concerned when he learns of another vigilante following in his footsteps and taking the law into his own hands.
A bit hypocritical, isn’t it? This is why I felt the movie fell flat; neither Superman or Batman seem affected by their actions or phased by the impact they have, both hate each other for being the same. Whereas Civil War shows the effect the Avengers has had on its members, friendships at the breaking point. Add a former friend and trained assassin, the Winter Soldier, to the mix and chaos unfolds…
5. The Villains
The cornerstone of our protagonists. Comic book movies as a whole seem to struggle with making memorable villains with strong personalities. In these movies, both the respective villains are there to stir the pot and force our heroes against one another. But for me, it was how these characters were utilised and presented that made Civil War, and broke Batman V Superman. Zemo in Civil War had a simple (and cliche) motivation to avenge those he lost, blaming the Avengers for not saving everyone.
It linked well to the narrative and driving force of the plot, he’s just another casualty, pushed too far and forced to challenge their superiority. An average man willing to topple an empire. (a little reference for you). Lex on the other hand, or as many called Lex Jr. (I thought more Joker Jr.), felt like a polar opposite. I mean, isn’t Lex a cunning, manipulative man whose hatred for Superman came from him foiling his plans for world domination and control? What happened Jesse Eisenberg? You came off as (I called it) a spoilt brat, with an unstable mind to boot. His motivation? Chaos and anarchy for the sake of chaos and anarchy.
I’ll give him points for being a master negotiator though; gaining access to classified government property for a sweet, and literally blowing away anyone who disagrees with him. The focus should be on the heroes, not the villains and Civil War presented a minor but pivotal villain that helped to cast doubt, which was his goal. Whilst with Lex, if being shaved bald at the end of the movie was the closest representation of the character, you know you messed up.
4. Choosing Sides
Both storylines were fan favourites for a long time and the subject of many discussions amongst the comic community. But with the hype and marketing of these big screen adaptations, it brought the subject of who would win in a fight to the public forum. But a fight needs a reason to occur, the conflict of ideals and opinions that justifies allies turning into foes. Civil War does this simply by the two polar opposites in Captain America and Iron Man trapped between following orders and what they feel is right. Iron Man is in favour of government intervention as the guilt of human casualties and fear of further confrontations has clouded his judgement, whilst Cap is against the call as he feels he’ll become a soldier once again and may not have the opportunity to intervene, simply being told whether or not to help is something he cannot adhere to.
The knowledge of these characters and the change in their relationship over the previous movies allows you to witness their contrast of opinions grow and take shape, as the time invested has built depth and understanding. The issue in contrast with Batman v Superman is as it is a reboot, we know the characters but their ideals are not evidently present and seem to shift constantly throughout the runtime. Both are scared of each other and the impact they have on their cities,but seem content in bringing trouble to their streets when the brawls begin to unfold. The debate here doesn’t feel like ideals, but more a popularity contest. So when it comes to the fight, the reasoning lacks impact. I mean, Batman was scared of Superman’s power and needed to be stopped (fairly understandable), whilst Superman’s reasoning? To save his Mum. It’s not like he has super speed to scan the city and find her or anything.
3. The Showdown
We’ve come to the main event: the scene where the heroes cut the dialogue and enter the fisticuffs. For this to work we need two things: an amazing visual show and meeting the high expectations of the source material from the fans that have built over the months waiting. I just want to say I found both the fight scenes here enjoyable and somewhat loyal to the source material (excluding some events and characters here and there). But the airport fight scene that was the highlight of Civil War, left Batman v Superman in the dust. the reasons behind this was simple; the mass brawl of the Avengers outweighed the battle between God and Bat.
Batman v Superman had the fight isolated to a single derelict building whilst Civil War‘s confrontation took place in an abandoned airport, utilising all available (including vehicles and buildings) to show that no one was holding back, it was a fight to prove who is right as well as who is stronger. Compared to this, Batman v Superman‘s fight felt like a minor part of the film runtime, so much felt left out and wasted potential to give it a grader scale than the showdown with Doomsday. And as discussed previously, if the reason for the fight lacks meaning, the fight itself lacks meaning.
2. The Aftermath
So what’s next? How is the universes shifted to change? Once again, Marvel had spent years planning this aspect out and building up to the main event; Infinity Wars. DC only recently announced putting their hat into the cinematic universe ring with their equivalent of Justice League. However, the negative reviews of Batman v Superman has left the plans hanging by a thread and even recently forced a change of tactics (such as having to reshoot Suicide Squad to give it a more comical twist).
I mean lets quickly compare the endings and what’s ahead (by the way, big spoilers ahead). Civil War has the Avengers scattered and hiding, but ready to answer the call. Batman v Superman however, (I warned you…) they killed Superman. Let me repeat that, you kill Superman in the second movie of DC’s new cinematic universe whilst the others go “lets find the other heroes”. Really? We’re supposed to be shocked by that? We all know that years later when they finally bring him back will be such an anticlimax, our only concern will be to debate which theory they are gonna use to explain it…
1. Setting Up The Characters
Whilst we know that each film focuses on the hero in the title, both Marvel and DC have the added task of setting up sequels and future projects. Both have to reference new characters and where the universe is headed next. With Marvel, they finally managed to to acquire the movie rights to put Spider-man in Civil War, and in the scenes he’s in, he steals them with his naivety and witty humour (probably his closest comic adaptation yet). He is easily relatable and gels well with the current roster.
DC however, took a forced and somewhat lazy attempt to set up the league. Wonder Woman is in the movie, but despite the finale, she had no impact on the story other than to add onto the runtime. She was there for fan service, and for marketing, which is a shame. And the scene showing the other heroes? it felt like an afterthought and so forced, it was embarrassing. I mean, would you really send classified information and secrets over an email attachment? I assume Batman is smarter than that, otherwise the title of “World’s Greatest Detective” seems misplaced.
The title and content of this article may have a huge sense of bias here, but believe me when I say that Batman v Superman did have good moments and should serve as a suitable base for DC to create a cinematic universe. However, even before Civil War hit the big screens to show them how it’s done, the cracks and flaws in Batman v Superman started to show, struggling to make a dent in the armour that is Marvel’s long running success.
We can only hope that DC can learn from their mistakes and negative reviews to make a universe that can not only rival Marvel, but better meet the expectations of the fans that have waited decades for their favourite comics to be done Justice. League. Sorry, had to do it.
Which film was your favourite? And what would you have changed to make them better? Sound off in the comments or send us your thoughts on Twitter!